2014 Lotus Elite revealed

In an astonishingly audacious move, Lotus intends to burst out of its Spartan quasi-racer niche. It has announced the Elite, a car to challenge the high-profile luxury GT supercars -- Ferrari California, Aston Martin DB9, AMG SL, Corvette ZR1.

The Elite will be shown at the Paris salon, and is intended for production in spring 2014. Lotus is showing it this early because it obviously needs to make a whole new audience aware of the brand.

Power comes from a Lotus-developed version of the Lexus IS-F's five-liter V8. It makes 550 horsepower in 'base' trim, and 620 in R trim. Lotus says the R version will hit 62mph from rest in less than 3.5 seconds.

So Lotus wants to move up to the already crowded Big Boys niche market.....

ok......
___________________________________________ Heaven: where the police are British, the cooks French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian, and it is all organized and run by the Swiss. Hell: where the police are German, the cooks British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, and it is all organized and run by the Italians.

Its a cool car, but c'mon, this isn't Lotus. Colin Chapman would be rolling in his grave if he knew they were purposely and willingly adding weight to a Lotus. The whole point of Lotus has always been "To add speed, add lightness." More quotes here.